Simple Stress and Strain

Introduction to the concepts of stress and strain

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Different Effects of Forces

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Concepts of Stress and Strain
• Two key quantities which will be repeatedly discussed in this class:

Stress Risk of fracture

Strain Deformation

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Concept of Stress

• The concept of stress is the main area of interest of mechanics of deformable

bodies. It is the investigation of the internal resistance of the body, i.e., the
nature of forces set up within a body to balance the effect of the externally
applied forces.
• The externally applied forces are termed as loads. These externally applied
forces may be due to any one of the reasons:
• due to service conditions
• due to environment in which the component works
• through contact with other members
• due to fluid pressures
• due to gravity or inertia forces

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Concept of Stress

• In mechanics of deformable bodies, external forces applied on a body,

causes a deformation.
• From equilibrium point of view, this action should be opposed or reacted by
internal forces which are set up within the particles of material due by virtue of
cohesion between particles of the material, which tend to resist deformation.
• These internal forces give rise to a concept of stress. Firstly, the significance
of this concept needs to be understood.

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 Concept of Stress
2. Effect of width
𝐹
𝐹 𝐹 Assuming a homogeneous distribution
of the force throughout the interface.
Length 𝐹 𝐹
Width

𝐹 𝐹 𝐹 𝐹
𝐹
1. Effect of length
(does not influence the risk of fracture) • Load and the area of the
𝐹 𝐹 𝐹 surface over which the load is
𝐹 applied are important factors for
𝑑𝐹 𝑑𝐹
𝐹 𝑆1 𝑆2 estimating the risk of fracture of a
𝐹 member.
• Stress will deal with capturing
both these factors.
𝐹 𝐹 𝐹 = න 𝑑𝐹 𝐹 = න 𝑑𝐹
𝐹 𝐹 𝑆1 𝑆2
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Concept of Stress

In the elementary theory of analysis, some assumptions are made:

• Materials are perfectly elastic, i.e., the deformations caused to the body
totally disappear as soon as the load or forces are removed.
• Materials are isotropic, i.e., properties are same in all directions.
• Materials are homogeneous, i.e., properties are same everywhere in the
body.

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Concept of Stress (Normal Stress)
• Let us consider a rectangular bar of some cross–sectional area and subjected
to some load or force normal to the surface (in Newtons).

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Concept of Stress (Normal Stress)
• Let us imagine that the same rectangular bar is assumed to be cut into two
halves at section XX.
• Now, each portion of this rectangular bar is in equilibrium under the action of
load P and the internal forces acting at the section XX has been shown

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Concept of Stress (Normal Stress)
• Now, the intensity of stress or stress is defined as the resisting force per unit
area of the surface. Here we use a symbol 𝜎 to represent the stress.

𝑃
𝜎=
𝐴

where A is the area of the XX section.

• Sign convention: tensile → positive and compressive → negative

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Concept of Stress (Normal Stress)
• But the stress distributions may be for from uniform, with local regions of high
stress known as stress concentrations.
• If the force carried by a body is not uniformly distributed over its cross-sectional
area, A, we must consider an infinitesimal (infinitely small) area, ‘𝛿𝐴’ which
carries a small load 𝛿𝑃, of the total force ‘P’, Then definition of stress is
𝛿𝑃
𝜎=
𝛿𝐴

• As a particular stress generally holds true only at a point, therefore it is defined

mathematically as
𝛿𝑃
𝜎 = lim
𝛿𝐴→0 𝛿𝐴
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Units
• The basic units of stress in S.I units i.e. (International system) are N/m2 (or Pa).
• However, this is a very small unit, almost the stress due to placing an apple on
an area of 1 m2. Thus, it is preferable to express units in MN/m2 or MPa.
• 1 MPa = 106 Pa
• 1 GPa = 109 Pa
• In numerical problems, sometimes it is convenient to express the units of stress
N/mm2, because this is an equivalent to MPa.
• While US customary unit is pound per square inch psi.

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Types of Stresses
• Only two basic stresses exists:
(1) normal stress
(2) shear stress
• Other stresses are either are basically a combination of these, e.g., bending
stress is a combination tensile, compressive and shear stresses. Torsional
stress, as encountered in twisting of a shaft is a shearing stress.

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Normal Stresses
• We have defined stress as force per unit area. If the stresses are normal to the
areas concerned, then these are termed as normal stresses. The normal
stresses are generally denoted by a Greek letter (𝜎).
• Depending the number of directions along which normal stresses are acting on
a body, the state of stress are termed as uniaxial, biaxial and triaxial states.

(Uniaxial state of stress)

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Shear Stresses
• When two equal and opposite parallel forces not in the same line act on two
parts of a body (a couple), then one part tends to slide or shear from the other
across any section and the stress developed is termed as shear stress,
denoted by Greek letter (𝜏). The shear stress is always tangential to the area
over which it acts. Defined as,
𝑃 𝛿𝑃
𝜏= or 𝜏 = lim
𝐴 𝛿𝐴→0 𝛿𝐴

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Shear Stresses
• It must be borne in mind that, the stress at any point in a body is basically resolved into two
components 𝜎 and 𝜏; one acts perpendicular and the other parallel to the area concerned.

Note:
Single shear takes place on the single
plane and the shear area is the cross-
sectional area of the rivet, whereas double
shear takes place in the case of Butt joints
of rivets and the shear area is the twice of
the cross-sectional area of the rivet.

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 Complementary Shear Stresses
• Consider an infinitesimal rectangular block ABCD of unit thickness with shear stress of intensity
𝜏 acting on planes AD and BC (left fig.), which tends to rotate the block in CW direction.
• According to static equilibrium, another shear stress of the same magnitude is applied in CCW
direction.

𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑝𝑙𝑒 = 𝜏 ⋅ 𝑦 ⋅ 1

𝑀𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑝𝑙𝑒 = 𝜏 ⋅ 𝑦 ⋅ 𝑥

𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑝𝑙𝑒 = 𝜏 ′ ⋅ 𝑥 ⋅ 1

𝑀𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑝𝑙𝑒 = 𝜏 ′ ⋅ 𝑥 ⋅ 𝑦
𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑢𝑚,
𝜏 ⋅ 𝑦 ⋅ 𝑥 = 𝜏′ ⋅ 𝑥 ⋅ 𝑦
∴ 𝜏 = 𝜏′

• The shear stresses on the transverse pair of faces are known as complementary shear
stresses. Thus, every shear stress is accompanied by an equal complementary shear stress
on perpendicular planes.
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Saint-Venant’s Principle
• According to this principle, the distribution of internal stresses or strains on sections of a body,
which are at sufficient distance from the surfaces of load applications, is not affected by the
nature of actual application of load over the surface.

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Strain
• The deformation of a body under a load is proportional to its length. To study the behavior of a
material, it is convenient to study the deformation per unit length of a body than its total
deformation.
• The deformation per unit length is known as strain, denoted by Greek symbol 𝜀.
𝛿
𝜀=
𝐿
• As the ratio implies, it is a dimensionless quantity.
• As an example, consider a steel bar having length L equal to 2.0 m. When heavily loaded in
tension, this bar might elongate by 1.4 mm, which means that the strain is

𝛿 1.4𝑚𝑚
𝜀= = = 0.0007 = 700 × 10−6
𝐿 2.0𝑚 20
Shear Strain
• A rectangular element of a body is distorted by shear stress as shown below. If the lower
surface is assumed to be fixed, the upper surface slides relative to the lower surfaces and the
corner angles are altered by angle 𝜑.
• Shear strain is defined as the change in length in the right angle of the element measured in
radians and is dimensionless.

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